Tuesday, August 5, 2014

One more month...

We finally have a date for our carpet and tile install. It's set for September 3rd for the carpet and September 8th for the tile. It is one more month of plywood and at the end of all this we will have been living on plywood for 3 months. I'm just choosing not to think about it and hopefully this month will fly by quickly. We have a wedding to go and camping next week and school to prepare for so hopefully we'll be distracted enough that we won't be counting the days.

We had Luke's birthday party this past weekend. It's the first party we've celebrated in our new house and the first time we had people over...it went well but I was nervous about what people were really thinking about the house. Were they surprised like we were, by how big it was compared to the outside? Were they grossed out like we were with some of the dirty stains and scratches on the walls and doors that we haven't been able to get to yet? Was there still a lingering "smell" from dog pee which we have pretty much gotten used to? It was hard to know what people were really thinking as we gave them a tour of the house. Their faces definitely showed that there was some thought process going on but they wouldn't tell me what.

I did my best with getting the house ready for company but it was pretty hard with furniture missing from one room and it being crammed in another room. When we thought we were getting the laminate floor put in it we had moved all the furniture out of the way as we had been told to do but then it seemed pointless to move it back when we were going to get new carpet installed in just a couple weeks--or so we thought. We had no idea it would be another month. So basically we just left things as it was but it wasn't really the way you want to show off your new house to people for the first time...no where to offer them a place to sit in one room and no room to sit in another and rough, dog-peed stained plywood floors. It was humbling, that's for sure!

But still, we had fun, or at least I did. And it did seem like people overall appreciated the extra room the house had what with so many little cousins over. The kids were free to roam from room to room or play in the basement where you couldn't even hear them playing. The adults lounged in the living room and the foyer where there was plenty of room not to feel crowded. We do have the couch in the living room and used dining room chairs for them to sit. I overheard some talk about the big yard which I have come to love now that the trees branches have been trimmed and the yard has finally dried out.

Here are a few pictures of Luke's special day:

After the party, the kids were all tuckered out.

(I'm watching Little House on the Prairie again, can you tell? )

Henry had been very hyper after missing his nap but nearly fell asleep after watching a show on the computer.

And so, that is pretty much what we have done lately.

Other projects are still going on (always something going on) but it's hard to update because it's so slow-going. For instance, the door project is still being worked on but saving money has been hard. I've had to dip into it a few times to pay for gas and for Luke's party. Thankfully, I've had a few rosaries orders to help replace it. Still got about $200 to go.

Also working on the front yard garden. I will wait until it's all done to show the before and after pics. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the house before we started! You would be surprised by how over-grown everything was. The little garden that we're making makes the house look so much better. But it still needs a lot of work.